{"id":29837,"date":"2022-11-29T11:39:19","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T16:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=29837"},"modified":"2022-11-29T11:40:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T16:40:23","slug":"kaiser-health-news-blackfeet-nation-joins-lawsuit-to-protect-covid-19-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/11\/29\/kaiser-health-news-blackfeet-nation-joins-lawsuit-to-protect-covid-19-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaiser Health News: Blackfeet Nation joins lawsuit to protect COVID-19 mandates"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Blackfeet<\/a>
Welcome to the Blackfeet Nation. Photo: Murray
Foubister<\/A><\/figcaption>\r\n
Blackfeet Nation Challenges Montana Ban on Vaccine Mandates as Infringement on Sovereignty<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, November 29, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Katheryn Houghton<\/div>\r\n
Montana Free Press<\/DIV>\r\n
montanafreepress.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nJ.R. Myers\u2019 frustration grew as he read the email: To attend a local economic development council meeting in Browning \u2014 the largest community on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana \u2014 he had to bring proof he was vaccinated against COVID-19<\/a>.

<\/P>\tIt was November 2021. Six months earlier, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, had signed a law prohibiting businesses and governments from discriminating against people who aren\u2019t vaccinated against covid or other diseases. To Myers, the requirement to attend the meeting of the Glacier County Regional Port Authority<\/a> \u2014 formed by local governments in Glacier County\u2019s tribal and nontribal areas \u2014 appeared to violate that law.

<\/P>Myers, who isn\u2019t a tribal member, lives in Cut Bank, just east of the reservation. He said he didn\u2019t attend the meeting at Blackfeet Community College in Browning because he didn\u2019t want to reveal his vaccination status \u2014 adding that the Montana law protects him from doing so. Instead, he lodged a complaint with the state.

<\/P>\u201cWhen this local government agency started to embrace this concept of vaccination passports, I immediately reacted because I didn\u2019t want them to be setting a precedent. I wanted them to follow the laws of Montana,\u201d he said.

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\tKaiser Health News: Blackfeet Nation welcomes tourists after COVID-19 shutdown\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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Boasting one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States, the Blackfeet Nation is back open for business.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nMontana\u2019s vaccination discrimination law is one of the most controversial pandemic-related measures passed by Republican state lawmakers in 2021. Its rollout has created confusion within schools<\/a>, health care facilities<\/a>, and counties<\/a>. And it has been challenged as unconstitutional by health care facilities, doctors, and nurses.

<\/P>Myers\u2019 complaint exposed a new conflict: whether the state can enforce the law on the Blackfeet reservation over the tribe\u2019s right to administer its own rules to protect the health of its people as a sovereign nation within the borders of the United States.

<\/P>State officials began reviewing Myers\u2019 complaint to determine whether the port authority\u2019s decision to check attendees\u2019 vaccination status violated state law, according to court documents. In response, the port authority filed a federal lawsuit<\/a>, saying the state did not have jurisdiction to enforce the law on tribal land. Its attorneys cited a Blackfeet tribal ordinance that they said established vaccine rules on the reservation.

<\/P>This month, the Blackfeet tribe<\/a> joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff, saying it should be allowed to defend itself against \u201can unlawful attempt\u201d to enforce state law within the reservation\u2019s boundaries and to protect its rights to self-governance that were agreed upon in an 1855 treaty with the U.S., according to court documents. The tribe asked the court to block the state from acting on Myers\u2019 complaint and from any other attempt to enforce the law on the reservation, according to court documents filed November 15.

<\/P>Law professors and attorneys said this appears to be the first time that pandemic-related laws have been challenged in court over an alleged infringement on tribal sovereignty.

<\/P>\u201cThis case is really about the state of Montana attempting to assert its jurisdiction within the Blackfeet Nation\u2019s territory,\u201d said Mark Carter, a staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, a nonprofit that represents the tribe. \u201cWhat happens on the reservation directly affects the health and safety of Blackfeet citizens and all those within the reservation.\u201d

<\/P>Other states pushed back against pandemic restrictions: At least 25 states beyond Montana permanently whittled down<\/a> public health powers in 2021.

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While visitation is down, Glacier National Park faced unprecedented gridlock after the Blackfeet Nation closed the park’s eastern boundary. Officials say the season offers lessons for the future.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nMontana\u2019s vaccine mandate ban is the subject of a separate lawsuit<\/a>, led by the Montana Medical Association, in which the plaintiffs argue that the law is unconstitutional and prevents health care facilities from providing a safe environment for patients. A decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy was pending as of mid-November.

<\/P>A third lawsuit, filed by a Sidney law firm in state court, is also seeking to strike down the law. A Richland County judge previously declined to block the state from enforcing the law while the case is pending, and on November 16, the state Supreme Court backed the judge\u2019s decision<\/a>.

<\/P>The U.S. Constitution recognizes sovereign tribes<\/a> as nations with the power to self-govern. Shannon O\u2019Loughlin, the CEO and a lawyer for the Association on American Indian Affairs<\/a>, said that according to long-standing federal law, tribal sovereignty takes precedence over state law on matters related to protecting the health and welfare of tribal citizens.

<\/P>Kekek Stark, a law professor<\/a> and co-director of the Indian Law Program and Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic at the University of Montana, said that one critical question in jurisdictional disputes is whether a state tries to enforce rules on \u201cfee land\u201d \u2014 which can refer to a property within a reservation\u2019s boundaries owned by non-Indians \u2014 or tries to regulate a business incorporated under state law. He cited as another key factor whether a tribal nation has a law in place that differs from state law, adding that the tribal law would take precedence.

<\/P>\u201cThe absence of regulation, in some regards, allows the other sovereign \u2014 whether it\u2019s the state or the feds \u2014 to begin to occupy the space,\u201d Stark said. \u201cIt\u2019s not absolute that they could still regulate; it just becomes an easier argument when the tribe hasn\u2019t done so.\u201d

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